VCAST Music Disables MP3 Playback

CLARIFICATION: Verizon Wireless V CAST Music - MP3 vs. WMA Files

Okay, for all you confused or irritated about not being able to access your MP3 files with V CAST Music, check this out: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid ,124357,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

Basically, you can't download and purchase MP3 files on your phone, but you CAN transcode MP3s that are on your computer to use on your phone: "Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10 enables the transcoding of other audio file formats into WMA." The MP3s just remain on your computer.

i think most people have already figuered that out, the people that are still on here complaining are saying their will be quality loss during the conversion process and that verizon shouldn't be able to change the sofware in the phone to play wma instead of the mp3 originally promised. I think it is all bs and people being lazy, it is not hard to convert the files, doubt your going to notice if there is any quality loss( if any if exists) and you can easily switch your phone back to play mp3 format insead of wma, or just don't get the update! also verizon will only be charging .99 for songs downloaded on pc, where sprint is 2.50 per download from song! I think this servie is going to rock, if people don't like it, then don't use it.

I don't like it, and won't be using it, at least not until mp3 support is brought back. Even then, the OTA pricing is pretty whack.

I think I'll be researching Amp'd a bit more... they have much cheaper over-the-air downloading than Verizon (99 cents vs $1.99 for Verizon) and I haven't heard anything about them crippling mp3 support yet.

Right now, the only nice things I can honestly say about VCast Music are, "Hey, at least its cheaper than Sprint, and they MAY bring back mp3 support." Woohoo.

I bet the quality of the AMPD songs is gonna be below acceptable anywhere besides you cellphone... 1-2 MB song? (told by AMPD rep). Thank you, but no, thank you. I'll stick with Verizon's $2 for QUALITY song on my PC as well as not-so-good quality of the OTA one.

broadwaylos said:Remember that for $1.99 you are 2 copies of that song one that goes to your phone and another copy to your pc. Fo in a sense you are still paying .99 for the songs.

It doesn't feel that way to me.

For example, I use iTunes a good deal. I download a song to my computer, and then transfer it to my iPod. I now in effect have 2 copies of the same song, one on my comp and one on my iPod, but I don't consider myself to be paying 49 cents a song now jus' because the song is transferrable.

Yah, the $1.99 you pay is a "convenience" fee. A bottle of water at a liquor store is about 99 cents usually. A bottle of water a theme park is about $4.00! Why is it so much more? It becomes more convenient at that time...

Ok, mod you can downoad to computer( same price as itunes) then do what ever you want to it, transfer to phone, mp3 player, burn on cd, thus making multiple copies? So i guess i don't see the difference? If you downolad from your phone it sends a copy to your phone, and a copy to your pc, thus the double charge. If you just download from pc it is .99 so that is pretty good price.

No, I have to agree with temp_name on this one... the double charge for over-the-air downloads is a 'convenience fee' (and a pretty steep one at that).

The 'two copies' thing doesn't really justify the doubling of price, since paying the music companies for the song is the majority of cost incurred by VZW, not the transmitting of it. Again, its still just one song.

Also, I'm sure plenty of folks would love the option to be charged only 99 cents for over-the-air downloads and *not* have a copy sent to their PC, if they could then later transfer the song themselves from phone to PC.

But, good luck with that ever happening... looks like Amp'd is the only 99 cent OTA solution in town right now.

First of all, you need to have one of the 3 available VCAST Music phones to be able to access the service. Those are the Samsung a950, LG 8100 (if you purchased these models before 01/16/05, you need to take it to a VZW Corporate Store in order to get it upgraded for free.), and teh CDM 8945, when it is released. The LG 9800/the V will also have the Music option, but not quite yet. The OTA option with VZW's VCAST Music is only availbale in VCAST markets, which only includes about 60 major metropolitan areas. So, most people will need to download the music onto their computer, then sync it with their phone with a USB cable. When doing this, you can transfer any song you already have on your pc, no matter what format it is, to the phone. The p...(continues)

danyel84 said:If anyone has any other questions about VCAST Music, go to a VZW Store and talk to a representative instead of guessing and spreading false truths about the service.

Assuming you're talking about me (possible you're not), nothing I've said so far has been 'spreading false truths', whatever that means. Heck, even CNET raised some of the same concerns I have here when talking about VCast.

I wasn't saying that anyone said anything that wasn't true about the service, I was simply stating that if someone isn't sure about the Vcast music service, they should just go to a store and talk to someone that sat through a 5 hour training on the subject instead of browsing the inet and reading things from a random person. That way, no one will be confused.

you missed my point, I agree that the 2 dollars is a convenience fee for over the air, when you do over the air it puts the rights for the song onto your phone( not memory card) and will only play on that headset, you cannot remove your card and play it in another device, that is why they also send it to your computer, but anyways. My point was if you currently use ituens, like me. You pay .99 a song, download it, convert and burn it, or zap into mp3 player. If you use vcast music you pay .99 download it to pc, convert to go on mp3 player, or to burn on cd. So my poin t was the service costs the same and you can do the same thing with both. So for only .99 cents you can have it slapped on your bill instead of going on your credit card. I thi...(continues)

Unfortunately, when you spell it out like that, it makes VCast Music look even worse.

Going the PC route with VCast Music, its 99 cents a download, and I can tranfer the song to my phone, burn it, etc. and the quality is good (allegedly 128 or 160 kbps, depending on who I've talked to). Great, so its just like iTunes... except that iTunes has a MUCH larger music selection, two million plus tracks, vs VCM's half million or so. VCM is planning to expand to one million tracks eventually, but thats still half of iTunes' selection.

Also, iTunes works on both PC and Mac.. haven't heard anything about Mac support for VCast Music, I don't think there's any, 'cept through a workaround that a lot of people won't bother with.

ok, first you don't have to have vcast to download and load music to your phone using the pc route, only if you want to download them from phone, and if you download the lower grade song from ota your are still sent a high rate copy to your pc account. Itunes limits how many times you can burn a song on a cd and you have to go buy gift cards or give them your credit card. Verizon has no burn limit i know of and it goes on your bill, no need to give credit card. The so called quality loss is subject to debate, and if you do have a quality loss does that mean i get loss of quality when i convert my itunes to aac to burn on a cd? Seems about the same to me.

But you do have to pay $15/month to get VCast for the privilege of OTA downloading music tracks, which certainly is a bummer for folks who don't want VCast but do want the convenience of OTA downloads. That 'convenience fee' keeps getting higher and higher...

iTunes does limit how many times you can burn a track (ten, I believe), but I would find it very hard to believe that VCast Music has no limit on that either. There is a DRM (digital rights management) on it, and the music companies don't seem to be too big on letting folks have unlimited burns. Plus, if Verizon actually had unlimited burns, don't you think they'd be advertising the fact?

ok, i just burnt a cd using itunes, had to convert my mp3's to aac, so i guess that is where i see the confusion, wasn't that a conversion? I am not worried about my credit? what the heck does that have to do with anything, my point was i don't like my credit card number floating around the web, that is why i buy the itunes gift cards, but if use the verizon service it just gets slapped on my bill so i don't have to give out my credit card or buy a gift card. Man, do you even read these posts, you keep going way of topic of what i even wrote, i beleive we are using the same language.

You sound confused. If you were burning for an older CD player (not an mp3 or AAC CD player), you didn't convert to AAC, because iTunes files are already AAC, and because older CD players don't play AAC (though some newer ones do).

What you probably did was convert it to CDDA, which is CD Digital Audio format (also called 'Redbook'). Its what conventional CD tracks are. That particular conversion process probably isn't going to hurt your quality much, due to the huge size/bit rate of the files. Its almost like your just decompressing the mp3 files (though not exactly, 'cus the mp3 conversion process threw away some data, and you don't get it back jus' because you converted it back to a CD track. However, you probably didn't make anything ...(continues)

yeah agreed, i think must people into to music and that little difference in quality you should stick to a dedicated music device, for me i already have crap loads of mp3 so i am used to converting them to play in my cd player. I don't think this was designed for the hardcore like you but as an easy way to introduce people into the music download market that are not used to itunes.

It has a shot. Though I sure wish that the VCM phones allowed mp3 playback (without hacking), and that the OTA file quality was a little better (and the OTA price a little lower).

If they did even 96 kbps files OTA, that'd be fine, because the newer codecs (AAC and WMA) are better quality than mp3 at the same bitrate. A 96 kbps WMA or AAC file is allegedly the same quality as a 128 kbps MP3, which is 'near CD' quality and what most people have. So no one could really hate on 96 kbps quality too much.

Also, the option of sending me an OTA file only for like $1.49 would be sweet. I think $1.99 is a pretty off-putting price. Going through the PC is cheaper, but then peeps are like, "Why don't I just go the iTunes + iPod route?". Same pric...(continues)

There ARE lots of mp3 CD players out there, y'know. Its sort of the 'Next Big Thing' in car audio, along with in-car iPod support. If you have thousands of mp3s, I'd definitely consider that route.

But, if you do want to convert from mp3 to old fashioned CD digital audio format (CDDA or 'Redbook') so that your old school CD player can play your mp3s, its probably not that big a deal quality-wise. Why? Because CDDA (CD Digital audio format) is around 1440 kbps, aka the files are about a dozen times larger than your typical mp3 file for the same track. Huge, in other words.

Not sure if its strictly 'lossless', but there does come a point where quality is so high that you honestly can't notice any loss of information. A lot of people say ...(continues)

my car is a 2006 with a 6 disc changer, my old car had a mp3 player but i didn't change my factory unit since it held 6 cds that is enough music for me. I also have a rockford fosgate amp and alpine woofers, so i listen to it loud and have never really noticed any quality loss from mp3 i have converted over.